Spot Writers: Chapter 18
Chapter 18 of the continuing saga of Remy comes to us from Deborah Dera. Deborah traditionally ghostwrites articles and stories but is in the process of finishing up her first eBook to be released on the Kindle platform later this year. Keep your eyes peeled!
Next week’s chapter will come from RC Bonitz, author of A LITTLE BIT OF BLACKMAIL and A BLANKET FOR HER HEART, both available from Amazon or B&N. He’s looking forward to the release of A LITTLE BIT OF BABY, due in November.
The Spot Writers’ blogs appear at the end of this story. Don’t forget to check them out.
***
Chapter 18
Remy shifted uncomfortably, not exactly sure what she should say to Jeremy. The explanation he had given her about his mother being ill made all the sense in the world to her. She could hardly fault him for acting badly in that situation, though she wished the episode hadn’t been so downright threatening.
Still, she hesitated. Remy was willing to let Jeremy have his say, but she wasn’t about to open herself up to a dangerous situation. He watched her patiently as she struggled to find the right words. Rather than opening the door, she pulled the key back out of the lock and motioned towards the step as she sat, inviting him to sit with her.
“We should talk,” Jeremy said. “I’ve wanted to talk to you for a while now – about what happened that day when Barbara showed up…?” He trailed off, posing his statement as a question, checking to see if she remembered. As if she could forget.
She sighed. “Look. I know you’re going through a lot. We don’t really have to get into this right now, but –“
“No! No! I want to explain what happened. Please?”
Remy nodded. “Alright. What’s up with Barbara?”
“It’s really not as complicated as it looks. Barbara and I went out for a couple of months. We met at a wedding – she was a friend of one bride’s family. I dunno. We started talking and hit it off. It was sort of nice to have someone to laugh with. Neither one of us really knew anyone but the bride and groom, so…”
“So you dated.” Remy suddenly laughed to herself, realizing she could save some embarrassment on both of their parts by simply letting him off the hook. “You can skip the nitty gritty details. How do we get to the point where Barbara shows up on your doorstep, rattling about a wedding and claiming she’s pregnant?”
“Right. Well, if you haven’t noticed…” Jeremy paused to glance at Remy, “Barbara seems to be a bit clingy. Possessive, really. I’m all for spending time with the one you love and everything, but a guy has to have a little bit of breathing room once in a while. Somehow we went from fun at a wedding to some pretty serious dating and before I knew it she’d practically moved into my apartment. This was over the course of – I dunno – two or three weeks? I admit I didn’t exactly tell her to leave, but I was still a little surprised the day her friend’s van pulled up with the rest of her stuff.”
Jeremy seemed to relax a bit as he spoke and even laughed a little himself. “I’m sure the look on my face was priceless. My saving grace was that I’d already placed an offer for my condo here, and I told her in no unclear terms that when I moved she was not coming with me. I didn’t exactly say we were breaking up, but I definitely made it clear that we were not going to live together.”
Remy carefully studied Jeremy’s face. “She didn’t take that very well?”
“Uhm – not exactly. At first she threw a temper tantrum. I mean, I didn’t know a grown woman could act the way she did. Then, after a few hours, she got really calm. It was unnerving. Then she started acting like nothing had happened.”
Remy shot Jeremy a questioning glance, eyebrows raised. “She acted like nothing had happened?”
He nodded. “Yea. She went to the apartment complex and asked if she could take over my lease when she left. She even asked me if she could keep whatever furniture I wasn’t taking with me. I let her keep a few things since I had planned to start pretty clean here anyway. And – well – yes. Aside from that she acted as though we were in a normal, healthy relationship.”
Jeremy paused and shrugged. “I tried to break it off when I moved out, but she insisted I was just going through a phase. She showed up here more times than I can count. I told her that we were through, didn’t have much in common – you name it. Things were just weird and I wanted to get as far away from her as possible. I thought she’d finally gotten the message until she showed up at my door – well, at your door – that morning. I hadn’t seen or heard from her at all for about two weeks.”
Remy nodded in understanding, trying to process what she was hearing. She didn’t really want to pry into their relationship but she got the feeling there was more to Barbara than Jeremy wanted to discuss. “And now she’s pregnant.”
“And now she says she’s pregnant.”
This time she couldn’t help it. Remy laughed out loud and Jeremy looked at her, shifting uncomfortably. He looked nervous at her outburst but relieved when she started speaking again. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I just saw her leaving. I told you that. And I was thinking she doesn’t look pregnant. I don’t know what she is, but she really looks – I don’t know – sick? She looks awful.”
“Or deranged,” he added sarcastically. “But, you’re right. I guess I have a bit of a problem in that regard.”
“You sure do.” Remy looked Jeremy in the eye. “What are you doing to do about it?”
***
The Spot Writers- our members:
Catherine A. MacKenzie
http://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/
Jessica Degarmo
http://www.jessicadegarmo.com/
RC Bonitz
Val Muller
Leave a Reply